double bass<\/a> <\/strong>and principal cello, and if we have something to do together there is a little visual acknowledgement.\u2019 It\u2019s the same for Rebecca Jones: \u2018I can play much better with other sections if I have eye contact with them. If the violas and cellos have something together, it\u2019s good to have contact with the other principal. It\u2019s a signal that we\u2019ve all got our ears open. If there is a barrier, it feels very lonely.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\nOver the last two years, players and conductors have had to get used to various barriers, and conductor Paul McCreesh says that masks have presented a challenge: \u2018Our faces give away so much information. Even if conductors use their faces in hysterical ways sometimes, there is a tremendous sense of energy in that communication. The eyes are the windows of the soul and that\u2019s the most important thing. I need to see that smile \u2013 or scowl \u2013 otherwise I feel I\u2019m not communicating.\u2019 That\u2019s why, like many conductors, he won\u2019t wear spectacles: \u2018I would never dream of conducting in glasses, because the expressivity of my face, and my eyes in particular, gives so much more information.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\nAnother key relationship is between the conductor and concertmaster (leader). \u2018For a concertmaster, who has their violin under their chin and their arms going,\u2019 explains Leonard Slatkin, \u2018the only point of contact they have with the conductor is their eyes, which tell you, \u201cYes, I agree with what you\u2019re doing\u201d or \u201cWe need to stop and tell the orchestra what\u2019s going on.\u201d All these things are\u00a0conveyed.\u2019 <\/span><\/p>\nAside from the principal, Slatkin mainly glances towards the back, he says: \u2018I rarely look at the players right in front of me. I try to look to the people sitting in the back desks, because that way I have the feeling that I\u2019m leading the whole orchestra and not just communicating with the eight people in the front.\u2019 <\/span><\/p>\nIn concertos, he barely looks at the soloist, either: \u2018Eye contact is used mostly to coordinate entrances and make sure that specific spots are together, so I don\u2019t look at the soloist much \u2013\u00a0it\u2019s a case where listening is more important.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\nA lack of eye contact can sometimes indicate that something has gone wrong, though, as McCreesh explains: \u2018I have seen films where conductors have seriously over-stepped the line and they get the eyes-down treatment. The refusal to look is ultimately the most damning weapon an orchestra can ever use \u2013 one never wants to go there.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
Despite its importance, eye contact is rarely taught in specific terms. \u2018We tend to talk more about the physical process of moving one\u2019s arms and the way we use our body, but not how communication comes from the face,\u2019 says McCreesh. \u2018That\u2019s partly because it\u2019s so personal, and if it isn\u2019t instinctive, it\u2019s difficult to teach. You can\u2019t just say, \u201cFlash a brilliant look at the oboe in bar four.\u201d It has to be organic or it doesn\u2019t work.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\nEdwards offers her students some tricks, though: \u2018If they\u2019re working with an orchestra that\u2019s seated differently to what they\u2019re used to, I tell them to put stickies all over their room, where the second flute or first violins are, and to practise looking over in good time. When you watch the wonderful conductors, they look up early at players, but not too early. It\u2019s important to practise.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\nEye contact and choirs<\/h2>\n
In professional choirs, the singers tend to have their heads up, looking at the conductor, but the response they get might depend on the size of the group, according to McCreesh: \u2018If there are 400 people in the choir, I\u2019m not sure that whatever I do with my eyes is going to have an impact on the bass in the back row, but with an a cappella <\/i>choir you\u2019re up close and your gestures should be more delicate. Breathing is particularly important with choirs, and with this size of ensemble eye contact becomes more important.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\nThe string quartet<\/h2>\n
What is the dynamic in string quartets? For Guarneri Quartet first violinist Arnold Steinhardt, eye contact doesn\u2019t necessarily help ensemble: \u2018Our mentor, Alexander Schneider of the Budapest Quartet, used to say that to play together you have to \u201ceat fingers\u201d. He meant don\u2019t look at the others \u2013 look at their fingers. Sometimes people would say, \u201cYou play so well together, but you don\u2019t look at one another\u201d. It was true, because I was \u201ceating fingers\u201d, watching Michael Tree move up the fingerboard so I could move up my fingerboard together with him. When we looked at one another, it was usually because somebody had made a mistake or done something unusual.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\nChristian Elliott is cellist of the Zehetmair Quartet, which performs by memory. You might think that not having music would encourage eye contact, but it would seem not. \u2018We do look at each other,\u2019 he says, \u2018although not necessarily directly into each other\u2019s eyes, but at each other\u2019s faces and body language \u2013 those can be the most helpful clues. With some players, you know something\u2019s going to happen just by seeing their eyebrows go up \u2013 it can signal some kind of intensity coming. Actual eye contact is pretty minimal. Sometimes it can almost be too intense and intimate to prolong.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\nParadoxically, it can be more useful with strangers than with regular colleagues, he suggests: \u2018It\u2019s a great way to get the chamber music relationship off the ground, to quicken the friendship in the process of playing and develop trust. It\u2019s usually something very fleeting to say that we\u2019re there for each other. Sometimes that\u2019s all that\u2019s necessary in chamber music. We pick up on aural signals because we\u2019ve made that initial contact with the eyes.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\nFor Steinhardt, too, eye contact is about creating a bond: \u2018When I play duets or Bach\u2019s Double Violin Concerto, eye contact becomes more important. I might not know a colleague and afterwards we might walk away and never see one another again, but when we\u2019re playing, we\u2019re the closest of friends. Looking at one another is an affirmation of that.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\nThat energy helps the audience, too, he says: \u2018If we\u2019re playing and looking at one another and enjoying it, that conveys to the audience: \u201cLook, they\u2019re fantastic players, what great music these <\/span>duos are, and not only that, they\u2019re having a ball.\u201d\u2019<\/span><\/p>\nOne memory lives in his mind \u2013 playing the Mendelssohn D minor Piano Trio with Jacqueline du Pr\u00e9<\/a><\/strong> and Thomas Schippers at the 1965 Spoleto Festival: \u2018There is a place in the last movement where the music builds up to the joyous outburst of melody. There was a look of rapture on Jackie\u2019s face that raised the music to a level of exuberance and joy \u2013 a feeling of the miracle of music and of Mendelssohn\u2019s genius. The way she played that phrase and looked up at me, glowing, created a completely different dimension to the music \u2013 that\u2019s why I remember the way she looked at me so many years later. I think of that as one of the greatest musical moments of my life.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n\u00a0<\/p>\n
And maybe that\u2019s it. Eye contact between musicians isn\u2019t a necessary condition for great music. Conductors have other means to convey their intentions and instrumentalists find the information they need by watching technical cues. Sometimes it can be downright embarrassing to be eyeballed by someone you know very well, and if a conductor sustains a glance too long it might seem critical. But occasionally there are fleeting moments where something passes wordlessly \u2013\u00a0friendship, encouragement, solidarity, shared endeavour, perhaps even love \u2013 and maybe that makes eye contact the very essence of music.<\/span><\/p>\nILLUSTRATION: <\/span>STEVE RAWLINGS\/DEBUT ART<\/span><\/p><\/body><\/html>\n
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